Harbor Subdivision
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The Harbor Subdivision is a historic single-track main line of the BNSF Railway which stretches between rail yards near downtown Los Angeles and the ports of
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and
Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
across southwestern Los Angeles County. It was the primary link between two of the world's busiest harbors and the
national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge rail lines in North America. It does not include most subway or light rail lines. F ...
. Mostly displaced with the April 15, 2002 opening of the more direct Alameda Corridor, the Harbor Sub takes a far more circuitous route from origin to destination, owing to its growth in segments over the decades. The subdivision was built in this fashion beginning in the early 1880s to serve the ports and the various businesses that developed along it.


History


Construction

First built to serve
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and
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
located at what is now
Playa del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...
, the construction of a larger, better port at Redondo Beach brought an extension to that city in 1888. The early 1900s would see that project eclipsed with the coming of the San Pedro Outer Breakwater and the Port of Los Angeles. By the early 1920s, owing to the development of the area's oil fields, the Harbor Sub was extended through Torrance, Wilmington and on to
Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
. Development of Watson Yard in Wilmington completed the line. Other than sidings at "Lairport" (along the eastern edge of Los Angeles International Airport next to Aviation Boulevard at 120th Street), "Ironsides" in Torrance and the line's longest siding at the Alcoa, also in Torrance, the Harbor Sub is completely single-track without signals, compensated with
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control via a local dispatcher.


Los Angeles Metro Rail system

Most of the line was purchased by the
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angel ...
(Metro) in 1992, and freight rights are retained by BNSF. Heavy construction began in June 2014 to convert a portion of the Harbor Subdivision to light rail use as a segment of the
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, part of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The Harbor Subdivision over-crossing on Century Boulevard and Aviation Boulevard was demolished in late-July 2014 as part of the construction of the K Line. When completed, it will run from Jefferson Park in the north and link with the
Metro C Line The Metro C Line is a bus rapid transit line in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis, Minnesota operated by Metro Transit. The line is part of Metro Transit's Metro network of light rail and bus rapid transit lines. The route operates from the Broo ...
at the south end. However with the construction of the
LAX People Mover The LAX Automated People Mover is an automated people mover (APM) system around the Los Angeles International Airport area, currently under construction for Los Angeles World Airports. To be operated by LAX Integrated Express Solutions, the LA ...
, the K Line opened north from the Westchester/Veterans station in October 2022. The remaining two stations would open later in the following years. A study conducted by Metro examined the feasibility of extending the C Line to Torrance via the Harbor Sub, the creation of a new light rail transit line and even the possibility of a
maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage ...
high-speed rail system.


Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor

In May 2022, Metro began construction on the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor Project. The project uses the portion of the Harbor Subdivision from the K Line's Fairview Heights station to the A Line's Slauson Station, with a connection to the J Line's Slauson Station along the way. The project will remove the existing railroad tracks from the right-of-way and replace them with paths for walking and cycling.


References

{{Reflist


External links


LACMTA Harbor Subdivision Transit Corridor
BNSF Railway lines History of Los Angeles History of Long Beach, California Transportation in Los Angeles County, California Transportation in Los Angeles Transportation in Long Beach, California Transportation in Torrance, California